


Some things are meant to be

by wckdsilver



Category: IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Crushes, First Kiss, Fluff, Holding Hands, Ice Skating, M/M, Pining, beverly marsh is an iconic best friend, just some holiday fluff, stanlon and benverly are briefly mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 00:15:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13135158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wckdsilver/pseuds/wckdsilver
Summary: It's the first day of the winter break and the Losers' Club decide to go figure skating. Richie wants to take this opportunity to impress Eddie. He just wished he knew how to skate, first.





	Some things are meant to be

**Author's Note:**

> the losers are about 17 in this and it takes place in modern times
> 
> hope y'all enjoy :)

It's the first day of the winter break and what do the losers decide would be a good way to spend it? Going ice skating.

Richie thinks it's the worst idea ever. He's never been before so clearly, he doesn't know how to skate at all (he didn't tell the rest of the losers though).

The only reason he agreed to go was because of the way Eddie begged him to come with them. Well, maybe not begged him. Richie refused to go at first, making different excuses, but when he saw the way Eddie's eyes lit up at the mention of going figure skating and he told Richie how much fun it would be, Richie said okay. It may or may not have been the thought of seeing Eddie in figure skates, looking beautiful skating around the ice with rosy coloured cheeks from the cold and looking all soft in his winter attire, that had totally convinced him.

They're in Mike's car now, on their way to the rink. Stan is in the passenger seat, Mike's hand on his thigh and Stan's hand resting on top. _What a cute couple they make_ , Richie thinks. Richie is in the back with Bill and Eddie; Eddie squished in the middle. Ben and Beverly went together in Beverly's car. Even Georgie came along for the fun. He was also in Beverly's car because he loved being around her. Bill was only a little jealous.

All Richie can think about is how ridiculous he is going to look the second he steps onto the ice. Eddie notices he's been a little quieter than usual. "You've been surprisingly quiet this whole ride, Rich. What's going on in that funny brain of yours?"

"Oh, not much, just thinking about what a great time I had with your mom last night," Richie says with a grin.

Eddie shoves his shoulder. "You're disgusting."

"So I've been told."

They pull into the parking lot and wait for Ben and Beverly. When they arrive, they all walk towards the outdoor rink. They go to where the skate rentals are and put their skates on while Richie stands there, not knowing what to do.

"Come on, aren't you going to put your skates on? You can't be that dumb in the head to not know how to," Eddie says.

"No, I know what I'm doing, just deciding on what pair will look best with my outfit."

"They all look the fucking same. Here, try these," Eddie hands him a pair of skates that look his size. Richie takes them and puts them on.

"Now, do you need help tying them up or are you still two years old?"

Richie just gives him a funny look. Eddie sighs as he goes over to tie his skates. "Remind me why we're friends again?"

"Because you love me and would do anything to help a dear friend, now wouldn't you, Eddie Spaghetti."

"Not when that dear friend uses stupid fucking nicknames that I told him over and over again not to call me."

"You know you love it, Eds."

Eddie sighs. "Why do I even bother. And don't answer that," Richie laughs and ruffles Eddie’s neat hair before he gets up from tying Richie's skates. The others have already left, too eager to skate and not wanting to hear more of their endless bickering.

They make their way to the skating rink, linking arms in case one of them (Richie) trips. Eddie removes the skate guards and enters the ice, while Richie continues to just stand there, watching everyone glide across the ice, making it look so easy. Even Georgie knows how to skate!

"Aren't you coming? Or are you going to stand there all day?" Eddie says.

"Yeah, about that. I don't know how to ice skate."

"Noo, really? I totally didn't get that idea from when you didn't even know how to put your skates on," Eddie says sarcastically.

"Then why are you letting me stand here looking like a dumbass?"

"It's entertaining seeing you not know how to do something for once. Plus, I didn't want to embarrass you."

"Well, you failed, Eds. I'm embarrassed. Now it would be nice if you could help me—seeing as you're such a pro, Spaghetti Man."

"It's not so hard once you get the hang of it. Just put one foot in front of the other and let your body glide yourself forward."

"Easy for you to say."

"Just, watch me," Eddie then continues to move around the ice, looking cuter than ever tucked up in his knitted scarf with his little pink ear muffs on, even doing a few spins here and there. He finally comes to a perfect stop in front of Richie.

"Now you're just being a show off. When did you even learn to skate so well? Especially with how worried your mom gets if you get as so much as a paper cut."

"When I was younger I always wanted to go skating, but she would never let me in fear of me falling and breaking my head open. I never stopped asking her so she gave up and finally put me in private lessons, watching my every move making sure I didn't get hurt. It kind of became a hobby of mine, but I haven't done it in a while which is why I wanted to go today so badly," Eddie says.

"And I never knew this about you because?"

"I didn't think it was that big of a deal."

"Okay, well, I guess we both learned something about each other today. Again, since you're such a pro, why don't you help me?"

"Fine. Here, take my hand," Eddie reaches his hand out; Richie grabs onto it and steps onto the ice. He stumbles and nearly falls flat on his face already, but Eddie keeps him up. He takes a hold of Richie's other hand and skates backwards while guiding Richie on what to do. Richie feels like an idiot, with his knees bent trying so hard not to fall while Eddie pulls him along.

Stan and Mike skate by them, hand in hand. "You can do it, Richie! We believe in you!"

"Oh, shut up, Stan. You didn't even learn how to ride a bike until you w— oh fuck!" Richie loses his balance and falls on his hands and knees. Stan and Mike skate away, laughing. Eddie helps him up while trying to suppress his own laughter.

"You think this is funny, do you, Eds? Well, you won't find it so funny when you find me in your mom's b— shit, fuck!" Richie grabs onto Eddie’s arm.

“Wha— Richie!”

Richie slips and falls down again, but this time he brings Eddie down with him, Eddie landing right on top of him. Richie hopes the cold is hiding his blush, due to how close they are.

“Didn’t know you liked to get this frisky on the first date, Eds.”

“Shut the fuck up, you’re the clumsy one. And don’t call me Eds.”

They stare at each other for a moment; Richie’s eyes flicker to Eddie’s lips for a split second, tempted to lean in. For a second, he thinks Eddie does start to lean in before they’re interrupted.

Beverly skates by them looking more gorgeous than ever and says, "You know there are children here, right? Watch the language, Trashmouth," she giggles. "Oh, and get a room you two!"

Richie subtly gives her the finger while she gives one right back with a smile on her face before she skates away innocently.

Eddie suddenly bursts out laughing. He gets up and lends a hand to Richie, helping him up more carefully this time. Richie starts to laugh too; he’ll never get tired of hearing Eddie’s laugh. _I want to hear that laugh for the rest of my life_ , Richie thinks.

An hour and a half later, after several falls flat on his ass, Richie thinks he might be starting to get the hang of figure skating. He still stumbles a little, with a few falls in between, but he thinks he's got the main gist of it.

He decides to take a little break and goes to sit on the bench to let his feet—and his butt—rest from falling so much. He watches Eddie as he skates around the rink. He was right. It was totally worth it to see Eddie skate around beautifully, looking soft with his cheeks red, caused by the chilliness of the winter air. Richie wants to plant warm kisses all over them. There are even other people watching him skate, admiring his abilities. Richie's heart swells with fondness for the wonderful boy he wished he could call his.

Beverly comes over and sits down next to Richie. “Hey Heart-Eyes. So, how has your first skating experience been so far?”

Richie ignores the name. “Why am I literally the only one that doesn’t know how to skate?”

“I don’t know, but it seems like its been worth it on your part. You’ve been getting some fun lessons from a pretty cute teacher, huh?” She nudges him with her shoulder, a bright smile on her face. “Maybe you should ask him out, he looks to be your type, does he not?”

“Quit it, will you? I get the point.”

Beverly’s known about Richie’s crush on Eddie for quite awhile now. Ever since they first started high school she’s known. She realized her crush on Ben, while Richie realized his crush on Eddie. They were both the first to tell each other this, although Beverly wasn’t shocked at all. She could always see how much he cared for the smaller boy just by the way he looked at him. She noticed this as soon as she’d joined the Losers’ Club. In sophomore year, she had gotten the courage to ask Ben out and they’ve been together ever since. Now it is senior year and Richie still hasn’t confessed his feelings to Eddie. He wished it were as easy as Beverly had it.

“Hey, I’m just saying. It’s our last year of high school, might as well make your move now before the year is over and Eddie moves to New York and you both go your separate ways,” Beverly points out.

“Thanks for the reminder. As if I wasn’t stressing out about that already.”

“I just think it’s about time you put your feelings out there. It makes me sick seeing you pine after him like some lovesick fool all these years. I could see your heart-eyes from across the rink. C’mon, what do you got to lose?”

“Uh, I don’t know, Bev, my best friend?! If I were to tell him now it could possibly ruin everything between us, and I don’t want to do that right before we move away to different places. I’d rather pine after him and watch him be with someone else, while still being his friend, than tell him and end up not being his friend at all. I can’t risk our friendship like that. I’ve lost a lot of things, Bev, but I can’t lose _him_ ,” Richie admits.

“Wow. Homeboy’s got it bad. And I thought Mike pining after Stan was bad. Besides, I don’t think you’d be risking anything by telling him. I can see he’s got it just as bad for you as you do for him. I saw the way you looked at him and my assumptions were correct, but now I also see the way he looks at you. I think you’d be doing him—and me, a big favour by telling him.”

“Whatever you say.”

Bill comes over with Georgie then, carrying hot chocolate. Bill passes one cup to Richie and Georgie passes a cup to Beverly. She ruffles his hair. “Thanks, Georgie.”

Richie mocks Beverly’s action and tries to ruffle Bill’s hair. “Thanks, Billy.” Bill shakes him off. “W-what have y-you guys been tal-talking about?”

“Richie’s love li—” her voice is muffled by Richie’s gloved hand.

“We were just talking about how great Georgie was doing on the ice. I’m jealous, way to go, dude!” Richie gives Georgie a high-five.

Richie sees Eddie coming towards them, looking like he’s about to say something, when he’s suddenly interrupted by a voice from the speakers.

“Alright, folks! It’s 7 o’clock so it looks like it’s time to slow things down with our couples skating hour. Feel free to grab the hand of someone of your interest and skate together to the music!”

Beverly immediately looks at Richie with a devilish smile and leans forward to whisper in his ear. “If you thought you didn’t have a chance before, now is definitely it.”

“Bev, I can’t just—” She pushes him off the bench and nudges him forward. “Go get ‘em, tiger.”

Richie hands her his hot chocolate and awkwardly walks towards Eddie. “Hey, Eds, I was wondering if you, um, if you wanted to skate, like, with me I mean. Not as a couple, but like, just as friends. Other people are doing it.”

Eddie looked like he was enjoying seeing Richie so flustered. “Yeah, why not? As friends, right, okay. You could use some more lessons anyways.”

“My point exactly,” Richie smiles at him. They link arms as they make their way onto the ice. He looks back at Beverly for a moment to see her giving him an encouraging thumbs up, a huge smile on her face.

They skate around the edge of the rink along with the other couples, who are mostly all holding hands while Richie and Eddie remain linking arms. Richie notices that it’s gotten dark out now and that there are Christmas lights strung up all around the rink and on the trees, giving a romantic vibe. He sees that Ben and Beverly are skating together, followed by Mike and Stan—both couples hand in hand.

‘Perfect’ by Ed Sheeran had begun to play over the speakers. Richie silently curses himself. _Why does it have to be this song_ , he thinks. “Weren’t you just saying the other day how much you love this song, Eds?”

“Don’t call me Eds,” Eddie looks at him. “Maybe.”

It had started to snow. Richie looks at Eddie as the song plays.

_Darling, you look perfect tonight_

Richie never thought anyone was perfect. He knew everyone had their own flaws, but tonight—looking at the beautiful boy beside him, the white snowflakes scattered in his soft, chocolate brown hair, his cheeks rosy from the cold—he realized he was wrong. The definition of perfect was right in front of him. Perfect to him, at least. Or better yet, for him. _The perfect one for him_.

The song changes into a female’s rendition of ‘Can’t Help Falling in Love’ and Richie can’t think of a song that describes the situation he’s in better than this one.

_Shall I stay?_

_Would it be a sin_

_If I can't help falling in love with you?_

Richie knows no matter how hard he tries, he’ll never be able to stop himself from falling in love with Eddie. He’s pretty sure he’s already fallen, and hard too. _I am so fucked_ , Richie thinks.

Suddenly, Richie feels Eddie’s hand slide down Richie’s arm and into his hand, intertwining their fingers together. Richie thinks his heart might stop. He squeezes Eddie’s hand—he never wants to let go.

_Take my hand,_

_Take my whole life, too_

_For I can't help falling in love with you_

As the song comes to an end, Eddie pulls Richie off to the side and brings his face down into a quick kiss. Richie is surprised at first, but before he can kiss him back, Eddie pulls away. Richie smiles down at him softly and pulls him into another kiss—this one much slower—resting his hands on Eddie’s hips. The kiss is soft and gentle, much like Eddie. Richie thinks he hears Beverly cheer somewhere.

They pull away—keeping their foreheads pressed together—smiling in relief. _I could definitely get used to that_ , Richie thinks. He kisses Eddie on the temple and wraps him up in a tight hug. _Finally, I am home_.

_‘Some things are meant to be’_ the song said. _Yeah. I suppose they are_ , he thinks.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!!
> 
> the cover of can't help falling in love that plays is by haley reinhart
> 
> (fun fact: that song came on shuffle while i was in the middle of writing this and i thought it was the perfect song for them to skate to so i had to squeeze it in somewhere)


End file.
